Aya Sakura
Aya Sakura is the female physical education teacher at Yōkai Academy and an Aonyobo, or Ghost. She is also a gambler and a collage student. Personality Aya is a person whose character is difficult to read. She possesses a dislike of humanity that borders on mistrust, which is something that she shares with most of the other Monsters in her debut. She is a skilled actress as she is capable of putting on the facade of an innocent, curious young girl when she needs to. She is also often very playful. Aya is a very ambitious person, as she declared that she will do anything it takes to live, and is ready to go as far as murdering someone or manipulating others in cold blood. She is extremely selfish and values her life over the lives of others, stating she has no problem sacrificing others in order to save herself. She also has a lot of pride, refusing to surrender no matter how far into a corner she's pushed, as long as the chance for victory remains. Her mannerisms are strict, refined and her spoiled nature emphasizes this due to her aspiring to be like European royalty. She even has a habit of ranking men between Rank A and Rank F, supposedly to test who is worthy of being one of her servants. She despises her real self as she dislikes ordinary and common things and considers her real identity and name to be one of "a loser". Aya speaks softly and smiles often in order to imitate Victorian mannerisms and etiquette as a lady. She usually uses polite language whenever she talks to others, but her short tempered side surfaces when something fails to go as well as she expects it to. As the Queen of Liars, Aya claimed that she can even fool her own emotions, but this doesn't seem to be entirely the case. She appears to lack empathy and claims that she feels no guilt for the nefarious acts she committed in the underworld. Aya has a habit of deceiving her own emotions and so even in defeat always keeps a constant poise. All her life she had been respected merely for her family or social status, yet because of his genuine kindness and services towards her, Izaya was the only one to take interest in her for who she was. Though she continued to treat him with some (unintended) bitterness, she began to warm up to Izaya, and eventually those around her as well. Over time, she came to see her friends as an almost family, and although her slight abrasive nature remained, she reached out to people more in attempt to better understand them. During this course of her inner development, as Aya spent more time around Izaya, she found that she was falling in love with him. Although she internally denied this and was confused by her increased heart rate whenever she was around him, she at last admitted her feelings to him. This shows that the icy, impersonal girl she once was had been replaced by a kinder young woman. Relationships Izaya Heiwajima Izaya is Aya's childhood friend. Aya was somewhat hesitant when it came to Izaya devoting himself to her. At first, she did not believe that their contract was necessary because she feared that she would just hurt him in the end. Aya rejected the contract many times, causing Izaya to believe that life would be meaningless without him being by her side so every time she would reject him, he would insist on her disposing of him with a katana, which she declined every time. There is a moment in which Izaya agrees to their contract being void because of the way Aya saw him at one point, claiming he was "morally corrupt", due to him toying with another girl's feelings. This caused Izaya to believe that he was not fit to be her servant. However, they did finally seal their contract when they both apologized to each other, thus forming their master/servant relationship. Izaya is willing to go to extreme lengths to protect Aya, whether or not it means putting his life on the line. As the manga/anime series progresses, their relationship begins to develop more into a friendship, but soon it starts to develop even more in which Aya starts to fall in love with Izaya. It is later revealed that Izaya has been yearning to meet Aya face to face ever since he first encountered her at her fiancé's estate. It is hinted that he has had feelings for her since then, even though they were never properly introduced to each other until middle school. In the anime, the two become a couple after Aya discovers that Izaya was the one writing to her ever since childhood and that they "noticed" each other. The two of them confess their love at a park. Later on in the anime, Izaya tells Aya that he has a dream in which he wants a family with her. At the end of the series, they get married (which makes her Aya Heiwajima) and they eventually have a son. History Early Life Little is known about Aya's childhood, due to her constantly lying, making it hard to perceive what is and is not real about her own family. She described her father as being of French nobility and her mother being a member of a German family of musicians. But because of this she suffered bullying and humiliation at school: her classmates told her she was a boring person and that she shouldn't get full of herself just because her family was rich. That is why Aya puts up a front and developed her bad habit of verbally abusing people. Even her teachers vainly defend her from the bullies in hopes of getting recognized by her family. The only person that stood up for her out of care was Izaya, whom she grew to care for a lot. Since Aya was of ghost ancestry, her family kept her in intensive protection at home - which was nothing more than isolation. While growing up, Aya had a cat named Grand Bois Chéri Ludenberg who she loved dearly and made sure to spoil and pamper. She was eventually able to get him to enjoy her favorite food, gyoza, and this then became his own favorite, showing the close bond between the two. During her childhood, she would write letters to her fiancé, Kagerou, for comfort. Aya loved to write letters in special stationery sets, and often would write one out of modesty and kindness. Since she couldn't talk to people properly, she vented her feelings in these letters, and apologized sincerely once to Renshou after a fight they had. She wrote her feelings especially in the letters she sent her fiancé, after which she eagerly awaited his reply. Some time during her childhood she began aspiring to be like European royalty, such as wearing Lolita clothing, using an old English accent - with English localization only - and changing her name to a fake one that had connotations of European royalty. Her other mannerisms and strict, spoiled nature emphasizes this. She seems to have lived a life of fake stories surrounding her past due to the nature of her profession, making her known to lie and conceal her past, which is likely why she is dubbed Queen of Lies. Her goal in life throughout her childhood was to live in a big fancy European castle with handsome male servants dressed as vampires to become her own personal secret service. She wanted to live in an idealistic world based off of aesthetic decadence, which is an unusual aspiration given the contemporary society in which she was born into. It is unknown why she yearns to follow traditional Victorian morality, but she appears to hate her real self, as she dislikes ordinary and common things. With her dream to acquire a European Castle, she felt it was only made possible to achieve it through winning large sums of money via gambling. Notable occasions where Aya put her life on the line for large sums of money in order to acquire her dream was when playing Russian roulette mahjong in the basement of a large mansion, her opponents being an old man who was a billionaire and a silver-haired boy who possessed a considerable amount of luck himself. She defeated them both at once and the crowd that had been invited to watch were in shock. She stated this to be one of her "fonder memories". Aya's desire to gamble was one of the many enjoyments during her early life due to the risks of success for claiming her dream. She was renowned for managing to rob any who challenged her of all their money. Due to her given nature and deception, she was given the title “''Queen of Liars''”. Powers Common Powers * Ghost Physiology – No body to destroy. The soul, one that is not of a physical being, does not inherit physical characteristics, such as concepts of destruction, therefore cannot be destroyed; in short, Aya cannot die because she is already dead. * Ghost Lord Physiology – Aya can transform into a Ghost Lord, the most powerful form of spirit. Unlike lesser spirits, the ghost lord possesses greatly enhanced abilities above them and may command legions of incorporeal undead of various sorts, including ghosts, banshees, revenants, wraiths, alas, and germans. Furthermore, they may have access to the ability to travel between the worlds of the living and the dead, and even create portals between the two. * Super Strength - Aya is also much stronger than humans, being incorporeal and able to generate great amounts of force without discomfort. She has demonstrated being strong enough to easily beat down, lift, toss, maul or mutilate the strongest humans, as well as overpowering some monsters. Since she's a Vengeful, angry ghost, she has proven to be strong enough to fight with much higher beings, such as Higher-tier Demons, and even the vampire king. Her strength can be considered a manifestation of her will power. * Immortality – Aya possesses immortality: an infinite life span, as she can never die, never age, and can shrug off virtually any kind of physical damage. * Flight – To fly without any outside influence. Aya is able to Levitate, and Glide as well. * Intangibility – Without a body, Aya is able to move without hindrance even if objects are in her way, as she can phase through them with ease. She is naturally intangible, as such she can phase through solid matter unfazed, however it requires her to get angry or alternatively very calm, to become tangible. She can phase her hands through people with intangibility and cause internal injuries or stop the heart. Aya is also able to ignore most attacks, physical dangers and gravity. * Invisibility – Aya can render herself unseen by the naked eye and become invisible in visible spectrum. She can move about an environment unseen by others and act without being observed. Sometimes, she can choose to let certain people see her, while staying invisible to others. * Super Speed - Aya is able to move at an incredible speed, especially through teleportation. She appears in a distorted, flickering form that allows her to move at great speed, as when she flickers, can end up either inches away each time she flickers or several feet or miles away. * Teleportation – Aya can teleport, or transfer mysical space between them. While teleportation may seem like it is simply for travel, it can be a valuable ability as it can be used offensively (and quite powerful, as a spatial attack) while offering superiority regarding movement speed and distance coverage. * Corporealization – Aya has displayed the ability to become tangible and solid at will. * Amortality – An entity who cannot die because they were never alive to begin with or exist in a state of unbirth. Rare Powers * Possession – A rare ability, a ghost can possess humans like demons do. Aya can possess or take over the body of any living being, whether sentient or not, by stealing their motor functions and senses. Aya may or may not have to leave her own body for this to take place. * Telekinesis – Aya can influence/manipulate/move objects/matter without physicalatter (beings/objects, including herself) or energy from one point to another without traversing them without touching them. * Telepathy – Aya can read/sense another person's thoughts, communicate with them mentally or affect their minds/thoughts. * Haunting – Aya can cause an area, buildings, vehicles or objects to become a festering ground for ghosts and evil spirits. * Soul Control - Rarely, ghosts, like Aya, can control the souls of those they have murdered. Weaknesses * Salt – Ghosts can be repelled by salt and can't cross a line made of salt. Salt is also useful whenever a ghost is possessing a human. Feeding salt in the mouth of the person a ghost is possessing, will cause the ghost great pain and force the ghost out and free the human from the ghost's control. Shooting the person with rock salt will also break a ghost's possession. * Iron - Like salt, iron keeps ghosts at bay. Contact with it will dissipate a ghost for a couple of minutes. Touching iron to the skin of a person possessed by a ghost will break their possession. * Light – Aya is able to be driven off several times due to her fear and vulnerability to light. * Hoodoo - Hoodoo can be used to stop ghosts, and keep them under control, however, this is not a solution and is merely a preventive measure. As such it will stop working eventually. Songs Older Lyrics I used to shut my door when my mother screamed in the kitchen I'd turn the music up, get high and try not to listen to every little fight 'Cause neither one was right I swore I'd never be like them But I was just a kid back then The older I get the more that I see My parents aren't heroes, they're just like me Loving is hard, it don't always work You just try your best not to get hurt I used to be mad but now I know Sometimes it's better to let someone go It just hadn't hit me yet The older I get I used to wonder why, why they can never be happy I used to close my eyes and pray for a whole 'nother family Where everything was fine, one that felt like mine I swore I'd never be like them But I was just a kid back then The older I get the more that I see My parents aren't heroes, they're just like me Loving is hard, it don't always work You just try your best not to get hurt I used to be mad but now I know Sometimes it's better to let someone go It just hadn't hit me yet The older I get The older I get the more that I see My parents aren't heroes, they're just like me Loving is hard, it don't always work You just try your best not to get hurt I used to be mad but now I know Sometimes it's better to let someone go It just hadn't hit me yet The older I get Quotes * "Am I here? Or here? Or here?" * "…yeah, I can break necks with my mind." * "Did you expect me to dodge? How quaint." * "Gravity is a habit that is hard to shake off." * "I intend to live forever, or die trying." * "Your mind, to me, is an open book: full of big print and lots of pictures!" * "Secrets? What secrets?" * "You may be surprised to learn that I absolutely adore gyoza. I love its stench, its base vulgarity." * "Obviously that was a lie! I couldn't take it! I hated it from day one! More than anyone anyone ANYONE else! I wanted to get out! Every day was fresh torture! And do you wanna know why? HUH!? Because...I had a dream. And accepting a life like that would have meant nothing less than giving up on my dream forever... And there was no way...that I could ever do that. In the underground world of gambling, I risked my life to make a metaphorical killing. And it was all for that dream... To live in a European castle. And to gather handsome men from all over the world to serve as my butlers-slash-bodyguards. I was going to make them dress up like vampires and satisfy my every need. Once I obtained that, I would have created a perfectly aesthetic world of decadence... Living the rest of my life there was my only dream, my only goal... That's what life is all ABOUT!" * "Hmph. My ability to lie is unrivaled, and I take pride in that. It's not just other people—I can even fool my own emotions. The conscious deceives the unconscious." Trivia * Aya is a feminine given name with multiple meanings in different languages. In Old German, Aya means "sword". Aya (あや, アヤ) is a common female Japanese given name meaning "design", "colorful" or "beautiful". * The meaning of the name Sakura is Cherry Blossom. The origin of the name Sakura is Japanese. This is the culture in which the name originated, or in the case of a word, the language. * Her theme song is titled Older (Anime) * Aya has three occupations; a collage student, a teacher, and a gambler.